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Hey @theuxyeti. Maybe you could make and donate a bot service that submits a comment on posts that were flagged by devs?

It can be an image that says something like:
"Post Censored by @whicheverdev."

I think that would be a great service to the steemit platform!

Then steemians can start to get a feel for which devs encourage the free exchange of ideas, and which devs would rather just control what other people can think, and say on this platform.

I think this would be a real community service, and I think if you put "I accept donations" in the about line, I think many people would donate to the bot. You could probably earn allot of Steem doing this!

I know I would donate!

You could also maybe keep a record of how many times and which devs censor posts that are clearly not pornography, or spam. That way the people of the platform might be able to get a good idea about which devs are abusing their power, and which devs believe that people ought to be able to speak uncrippled by flagging.

What do you think @theuxyeti should people be able to speak their mind on steemit without fear of being censored by the developers? Or should the developers be able to control the minds of the masses?

Im not too sure. My opinion is more over how to quantify the quality of the content and is it truly Organic. It seems there is an MLM pyramid scheme thing going on on this platform where there is a mechanic that exploits organic content with bots to increase the bid whereas the quality of the content no longer applies to the users of the community. Its a rush for users to get on a trending page or something. As for censorship of content and regulating it, I think if there were smart machine learning UI in place, itd be ideal to have NSFW content categorized in a way to keep the platform tidy and safe for the 80/20 rule. Perhaps if you go down that rabbit hole and have the checkbox NSFW unchecked youd never see the content anyway, so it doesnt apply to you. But youd still have to figure out when i user posts content to identify if its NSFW and what the parameters are for that.
At some point there should be rules to the way content is intermixed for accessibility but as far as turning that content on to see, should be as easy as checking a box in your UI.

Well, it's food for thought. I hear you though
about the bots, they really did change the dynamic of the platform. Unfortunately, they are a natural progression reflective of user values. People like money, they get wealthy, they get lazy, but they want more money.

So all of that plus the ingenuity of the programmer that built the first of these bots is what led to the vote value selling. You might want to chew the fat with that guy and see what he was thinking. He may not have even considered the devastating effect his bot would have on the platform.

I tell you what though; if you want to build @sneak a flagging bot, you may as well be helping Darth Vader to construct his death star. It's all fun and games until he decides to fux with your planet.

I have no beef with @sneak. Quite the complete opposite. I want to know everything @sneak so i can help build things for the community that build not tear down the community. If sneak can provide me some insight to the overall drive of steemit Im excited to be a part of it. There will ALWAYS be pain points with builds. its the habit of progress.

I hear ya, well if you can come up with an algorithm that prevents flagging based on ideological differences. I think something like that would be a major benefit for the community. It really is a shame to see voting wars and the like.

I think they ultimately end up tearing the community apart, and wasting creative energies on negativity. I don't know how possible or impossible something like that would be to design. Hell, maybe even a switch, that auto reveals flagged content.

That way people who believe in free speech could simply tick that button, and they'd never see a censored post again. I mean it should indicate it was flagged, but it should be unhidden if the button is ticked.

Good luck with your programming, if it's benevolent anyhow!

I don’t program I’m front end :-) but there will always be pain points in a platform along with things that are discoverable good and bad based on use. How the platform is evolved and updated is what will happen. Your argument has value and it’s reactions like these that help surface an issue to be discussed for future updates